BTCC: Donington Park Round 2 Preview

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Donington Park Racing Circuit, located in Leicestershire, is the second stop on the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship calendar in 2013. The round is compiled of three, 16 lap races taking place on Sunday the 21st of April. Most race fans are well and truly familiar with the sweeping 1.9 mile circuit, which has been a staple venue on the BTCC calendar since the late 1970’s. The track hosted the official media day and pre-season test for 2013, so lapping Donington in the cold, spring conditions will not be entirely unfamiliar for the field.

The Form Guide

Jason Plato takes a 9 point championship lead to Donington Park following an impressive performance at Brands Hatch, where he took two race wins and a 5th place finish. The MG KX Momentum Racing driver showed fantastic pace right from the start of the season in testing, where he was second only to Eurotec Honda driver Andrew Jordan. Plato’s team mate, Sam Tordoff, sits an impressive third in the championship in his first full season in the BTCC. He was extremely consistent at Brands Hatch, taking his first podium finish in race 3.

Independent Honda pilot Andrew Jordan splits the two MG KX Momentum entries in second place in the standings, and also leads the independent’s championship. Jordan took two 2nd place finishes, and took 6th in race three of the season, backing up his wonderful pace in testing at Donington. Jordan’s Eurotech Honda team mate, Jeff Smith, took a podium finish in race 2 at Brands Hatch, and sits fourth in the championship. The first of the Honda Yuasa Racing Team drivers is 2012 runner-up Matt Neal, who will be buoyed by his victory in race 3 at Brands Hatch. Neal will look for a more consistent performance over the three races at Donington, having finished 21st in race one after suffering damage from Dave Newsham. Neal’s team mate, 2012 champion Gordon Shedden, endured a difficult start to his 2013 title defense. He sits 9th in the standings after a disqualification in race two, and a 19th place finish in race one. However, a podium in race three of the championship gave some consolation for his bad luck at Brands Hatch.

Toyota pilot Adam Morgan made an encouraging start to the season in his Ciceley Racing entry, placing 7th, 6th and 4th in the first three races of the championship. Colin Turkington sits 7th in the standings in his eBay Motors BMW with three top 10’s at Brands, while Frank Wrathall’s two top 10 finishes were enough to put him 8th. Rob Austin started his 2013 campaign in impressive fashion, leading the first lap of the season and taking third position in race one. However, he also suffered two DNF’s and heavily damaged his Audi after contact with Dave Newsham at Paddock Hill Bend. Incredibly, the team have put in a wonderful effort to rebuild his A4, affectionately known as “Sherman”, in time to make the grid at Donington this weekend. Tom Onslow-Cole remains optimistic about his new NGTC Volkswagen Passat, and couldn’t realistically have expected impressive results having driven it for the first time just 24 hours before the first race of the season.

The Jack Sears Trophy

Liam Griffin leads the Jack Sears trophy for s2000 spec entries after taking two wins at Brands Hatch. The Addison Lee Racing driver once again campaigns a Ford Focus for the 2013 season. James Kaye sits second after taking a single win in his AMD Miltek VW Golf, while Lea Wood and David Nye also looked competitive at the Fawkham based circuit. The battle for the Jack Sears Trophy will be a fascinating side show to the battle for the outright championship.

The Circuit

Donington national circuit configuration consists of 10 turns, many of which would be considered high speed corners. Full commitment is required to set a fast lap time here, using every inch of tarmac to keep up momentum throughout the lap. Matt Neal holds the lap record for a BTCC car with a 1m10.902 seconds, set in his 2011 Honda Civic entry. It is a relatively wide circuit in many places, capable of producing side by side racing for much of the lap. However, most will not be willing to go side by side through the Craner Curves and with good reason, as many accidents have resulted from errant overtaking maneuvers on the drop down the hill.

One of the most challenging corners on the circuit is the old hairpin at the bottom of the hill. Who could forget Mansell’s slide and subsequent crash into the Donington Park Bridge on the run out of the old hairpin? The Esses following the long back straight will produce some gutsy overtaking moves under braking. Also look out for some action at Redgate, which is the first corner on the circuit. Hard braking up the inside will not always produce the best results here, as the defending car can often hold the outside line and achieve a faster run through Hollywood and the Craner Curves. McLeans is the other key overtaking opportunity at Donington National, however it requires immense courage to hold the outside line through Schwants Curve to set up an overtake up the inside.

Predictions

It’s hard to look past the usual suspects for this round at Donington. MG KX Momentum looked to have their car figured out at Brands Hatch, and it would be a brave man to bet against another strong showing from Plato and Tordoff . In the official test at Donington prior to the opening round at Brands Hatch, Jason Plato finished 2nd fastest, while Sam Tordoff set the 6th quickest time, showing that the MG entries have pace to burn, particularly at the fast Leicestershire circuit. The Honda Yuasa Racing Team of Matt Neal and Gordon Sheddon showed glimpses of impressive speed between their bad luck, and took a 1/2 finish in the final race at Brands Furthermore, Shedden placed a strong 3rd fastest in the pre-season test. Expect a strong showing from the factory Honda outfit.

Independent Honda driver Andrew Jordan set the fastest time in pre-season testing at Donington, and backed up his performance in the first round of the season. He will provide a massive threat to the potential factory Honda and MG dominance this weekend. Adam Morgan also showed fantastic pace in his Toyota Avensis at the official test day around Donington, only three tenths slower than Jordan. Morgan could also challenge for race wins this weekend.

When asked for predictions regarding the highest three point-scoring drivers for this weekend, Calum McLure, Howard Choularton, Simon Bacon and myself voted accordingly.

(1st=3 points, 2nd=2 points, 3rd=1 point)

Jason Plato(MG KX Momentum Racing, MG)- 9

Gordon Shedden(Honda Yuasa Racing, Honda) - 6

Andrew Jordan(Eurotech Racing, Honda) - 4

Sam Tordoff (MG KX Momentum Racing, MG) - 2

Matt Neal(Honda Yuasa Racing, Honda) - 1

Colin Turkington(eBay Motors, BMW) - 1

The Dark Horse

The Motorbase Peformance Team struggled with the reliability of their two Ford Focus entries at Brands Hatch, achieving a best finish of 7th. However, the team appears to have turned a corner, as Aron Smith told Autosport “We're heading to Donington with a completely different car and one that does what we want it to do. We've definitely made a big breakthrough with the set-up so that should transpire into better results and I'm confident that we'll be in a much stronger position”. His team mate Mat Jackson took a race win at Donington last year, and the team is traditionally strong at the Leicestershire circuit. Aron Smith and Mat Jackson could well be challenging for wins this weekend, even if it seemed almost impossible less than a month prior at Brands Hatch.

For BTCC fans in the UK, coverage of the action on Sunday, the 21st of May will commence from 10.45GMT on ITV4. Can Jason Plato continue his scintillating pace from round 1? Will the factory Honda Team hit back? Has Motorbase Ford picked up the pace? Keep your eyes on Donington this weekend!

To be honest I didn't knew that the BTCC still existed untill somewhere last year. Before that the last race I had seen included : Ford Mondeo, Nissan Primera, Volvo S40, Honda Accord and the old Audi A4

Yep, BTCC has always been more interesting than WTCC, and I think the tracks used are a great part of this superiority.Nero Sehovic : Those cars were already present in ToCA 2 Touring Cars (1998). I'm not sure for ToCA 1.